A touch of Wasim, faulty Caribbean batting, Sarfraz in the driver's seat and much more

When their schedule for a tough trip to the desert was announced, West Indies would have breathed a sigh of relief with the T20Is beginning prior to the ODIs and Tests. After all, this had been the only format which still kept Caribbean spirits intertwined together. However, the 3-match series ended with the World T20 holders on the receiving end of an embarrassing whitewash.

Their opponents, Pakistan, outclassed them in all departments of the game by a convincing margin on sluggish UAE pitches. For a side whose white-ball fortunes kept plummeting at every given opportunity, the unforeseen dominance could provide a major fillip to the team management. Ahead of the ODIs where the stakes might be a bit higher, their new found liberation should bring a palpable sense of optimism.

Let us go through five of the most interesting things that we learned from the T20I series.

#5 – Chasing unlike old times

Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik have formed a fruitful alliance in the middle-order

The correlation between Pakistan and chases had been on a downward spiral even by their traditional standards. With even a slight spike in the required run-rate often threatening to engulf their nerves, there was a need to inculcate a habit of controlling run-chases and prove that the final ODI against England at Cardiff arose from diligence rather than serendipity.

Though the target seemed pretty low on both occasions when they batted second, the modern-day template of going hard at the initial stages before consolidating through the middle-order was followed with precision. The urgency shown by Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik while running between the wickets should augur well for an evolving batting lineup.